Nivon's two-day autumn walk

The Morgenrood route is a long-distance walk between Boxtel Station and Tilburg Station, with an overnight stay at the Nivon Friends of Nature House. With this autumn walk, you will find yourself amidst beautiful autumn leaves and birdsong for two days. You will walk through forests, moors, fens and wetlands. Along the way, you will encounter various grazers roaming freely through the area.

The first walking day starts at Boxtel Station. Here you will have the opportunity to do some shopping before you start your walk. You should bring your own food (also for dinner). The Nivon Friends of Nature House offers you a huge kitchen to prepare your dinner in.

At the start of your walk, you can make a choice; will you walk 11 km or 18 km today? We choose the 18-kilometre trek.

The start of the tour runs briefly through an industrial area, but very soon you reach a beautiful park. This is marked by a huge artwork. Then the trek really begins.

Through an agricultural area with rows of large oak trees, you walk towards Kampina. Kampina is home to many natural phenomena, including the fens that were created after the last ice age. The whole area threatened to disappear to make way for a residential area, but Pieter van Tienhoven put a stop to that. Pieter was co-founder of Natuurmonumenten, which came into existence in 1905. He bought the Kampina area between 1913 and 1916 and has protected it from building plans ever since.

And just as well, because we wouldn't have wanted to miss all this natural beauty. A piece of history:

About halfway along the route on day 1, you come across the remains of an old farmhouse. This is where an impressive piece of history took place. Namely that of resistance heroes in the Second World War. Brothers Hein and Theo Schut lived on the farm and provided food distribution to all kinds of hiding places in the region from this spot. They also built a special shelter where they accommodated people in hiding. They also detained seven Germans, who were later released.

Find out what happened to the Schut brothers on the board on the Morgenrood route.

After leaving the forest behind, you step straight onto the vast heathland of Kampina. Heaths in the Netherlands provide a habitat for special animal species, including sand lizards and many birds. That is why it is so important to keep heathlands protected. This is done by running grazers through the area, which eat new shoots (new trees) and thus ensure that the heathland remains. So don't be surprised if you come across cows, sheep or horses!

At the end of your tour on day 1, you will arrive at the Nivon Friends of Nature House. Here you can spend the night in the house or at the camping sites. The house offers you a double room, sanitary facilities, laundry room, games and a huge kitchen to prepare your dinner in. Just outside the house there is also a campfire place; great to sit by on a dark evening and recover from this active day.

On day two, we can again choose from two routes, but this time it is not a shortcut, but you actually walk to a different place. So you can choose 6.5 km, which will take you to Oisterwijk Station. Or you go for 17 km and walk via the Moerenburg to Tilburg.

We opt for the former, as a nice change from the 18 km of day 1.

This brings us to the most beautiful fens of Oisterwijk. During almost the entire route, a small river runs on the right side of the path, with an occasional brisk stream. Water birds and mushrooms are also present in large numbers during this autumn walk.

To our minds, we are already at the station after two blinks of an eye. What a wonderful route.